The present invention relates a device, method and computer program product for indicating a state of charge or remaining charge information of a battery. The device, method and computer program product may be provided in a charger for charging rechargeable batteries, such as a nickel-cadmium (Nixe2x80x94Cd) and nickel-hydrogen (Nixe2x80x94MH) batteries or in a charger built into an apparatus using a rechargeable battery.
Conventional chargers display a state of charge or remaining charge information of a battery using a light-emitting device (LED) or a liquid crystal display (LCD). However, with such devices, since the charge information is visually displayed, such devices are not suited for visually handicapped persons. In addition, such charge information devices-are incorporated into portable devices, such as cellular phones, portable terminals, electronic calculators, etc., making use of such portable devices with respect to charge information difficult for the visually handicapped.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an easy to use and economically battery charge information indication device, method and computer program product for providing charge information to the visually handicapped.
The above and other objects are achieved according to the present invention by providing a novel state and amount of charge indication device, method and computer program product including an indication means for indicating the state or the amount of charge in one of braille, vibrations and sounds; an operating unit for selecting information to be indicated; a state of charge detecting means for detecting a state of charge in a rechargeable battery; an amount of charge detecting means for detecting an amount of charge in the rechargeable battery; and a control means for controlling, based on an operation using the operating unit, the indication means to indicate one of the detected state of charge and the detected amount of charge.